August 17 2006

Google maps: commerce at last! Coupons for local businesses

Here's the Google Maps business model... You search for something and local companies can be listed along with coupons or vouchers for promotions that customers can print themselves.

Vouchers and coupons have not really gripped the UK consumer in the way of US consumers. Maybe it's a class thing, or a post-war collective memory, but using vouchers and coupons at a checkout is currently shunned. The genius of the Sainsbury Nectar Card and Tesco Rewards Programme is that the vouchering can be handled delicately, discretely and via a proxy currency of reward points.

For what it's worth I've always been a great fan of vouchers - especially digital, relevant ones.

Let's talk Google AdWords for a moment. While it's possible to change the offer text and code for the AdWords, most retailers simply go with a "15% off first web order" or "Free postage on first order" to attract first time customers.

If, however, you blend the sophisticated capabilities of AdWords with an on-the-fly vouchering system (whether an unique offer code or a printable voucher with scannable barcode) and then link that to geographic searches then life gets more interesting.

Looking for the nearest Mercedes dealership near you? Depending upon whether you entered the search terms for "service" or "purchase" you could have a different voucher presented. Of more interest will be competition between less-well protected franchises, eg takeaway pizzas. Here you can offer nightly specials and also increase your brand presence (over and above a text advert) by using graphically rich vouchers.

The vouchers are a good way for you to understand customer incentivisation, as well as customer conversion rates (comparing vouchers issued to those redeemed). Retailers can also gather a great deal of information that would otherwise be unavailable to them until after a purchase had been made (post code, toppings preferences, maybe even an email address).

The process for advertisers is very simple and is ideal for local, owner-managed businesses that our not traditional online businesses (eg dry cleaners):

Coupons are available in Google Maps at no cost to businesses and consumers. Businesses simply need to log into the Local Business Center at Google Maps to enter in coupon information www.google.com/local/add. In addition, businesses can easily add or update their local business listings on Google Maps from the Local Business Center. Once coupon information is entered, the coupon is displayed on Google Maps within hours. Businesses do not need a web site to participate.

While the service is US-only at launch it does give an inkling both of the future developments of AdWords and personalised discounting/vouchering. It also gives a warning to both the main Yellow Pages and directory players, as well as the geo-location businesses like Multimap and Streetmap that Google Maps is not longer a nice toy but a waking giant that could dent their businesses - even though Google's claim is that its angle is "organising the world's information". That should have "... and making money from that information and its access" tagged to the end!

All we need now is for the vouchers to be tradeable and to apply to a teen/youth good that gets it traded on ebay and promoted by fans on MySpace... Then we'd get some traction in the UK.

Ian Jindal Google's press release is here.